Day Designer for Blue Sky Horizontal Weekly Planner Review

I’ve been eyeing off Day Designer and Blue Sky Planners for more than a year now. After being extremely disappointed that BlueSky only ship to the USA and Canada (not here, to Australia) – I even emailed Blue Sky twice over the past 12 months to double check. But all was not lost… as I found the planners on Amazon!

Features of the Day Designer for Blue Sky Planner

Frosted cover to protect the pattern cover. Not sure what the material is but it feels like thin super smooth cardstock

12 Month planner

July 2017 – June 2018 (there’s planners in a similar style that start in January)

Weekly spread starts on a Monday, each day runs from 7am to 7pm with a ‘tonight’ box at the bottom

The spiral binding coil doesn’t get In the way when writing – won’t be much room if you want to add planner stickers and washi though I doubt you’ll need much as it has a pretty confetti dot pattern featured at the top of the page

I’m normally not someone that likes the color mint but I really like it in this planner!

Laminated tabs

Extras pages

Goal setting

Date at a glance

Contacts pages

Essential lists

Travel Packing lists

Grocery list (only 2 pages though)

Plenty of notes pages at the back of the planner

I found this planner on clearance at Amazon for just $10! 😀

Let’s take a closer look!

To enlarge the screen of the video, click the square icon in the bottom right hand corner of the video (it will say ‘full screen’ when you hover your mouse over the icon).

The Cover

Frosted cover to protect the pattern cover. Not sure what the material of the stripe cover is but it feels like thin super smooth cardstock.

If you like planning using stickers and washi tape you may have to rip out pages as you use them as the coil is quite small.

This belongs to page

Date at a glance for the previous and next year

Goal setting pages

4 pages to map out the goals you want to achieve for the year and space to plan how you’re going to get it done

Monthly calendar & list planning pages

Monthly calendar starts on a Sunday. This planner does my pet peeve where it combines 2 daily planning boxes into the space of 1, rather than re-starting the numbering on the top row 🙁 When I use the planner I’ll be whiting out the line and re-re-writing or using date dot stickers (minimalist style or rainbow) on the top row.

I do really like that the monthly calendar has lined writing space with dates at a glance calendars for the previous and next month.

USA holidays are also pre-printed on the pages.

One the right page there’s 3 lists to plan the month <3

Monthly planning page with 3 lists – monthly to do, to contact or call and to buy. If these lists aren’t to your liking your could always using whiteout or a colored pen and then write over the top using the Sakura Gelly Roll 08 in white or the Pilot Poplol, or the Uniball Signo or any other white pen.

2 page weekly spread

The weekly spread was what drew me to the planner – very different to all the other planners out there.

Weekly spread starts on a Monday whereas the monthly spread starts on a Sunday.

The columns are wide – approx 3″ so there’s plenty of space for writing. The size is between a vertical and horizontal.

It has times from 7am to 7pm pre-printed on the page and there’s a blank line between the hours if you wanted to do half hourly planning, as well as a ‘tonight box’ that could be used for dinner plans or priority task for the day.

When you use the planner you’ll need to fold the pages back on themselves unless you have a large desk (i.e. you won’t be able to see the entire week at one glance)

Saturdays and Sunday fits the same space as a weekday i.e. you get half the amount of planning space

Extras Pages

Some functional checklist pages with plenty of space to add your own things to the lists <3

There’s a lot of contacts pages – medical contacts, household contacts and general contacts – bit of a waste of paper in my opinion since all of that is kept on my phone – would have preferred more list pages similar to the 3 lists beside the monthly calendar

Grocery List

Love the layout of this page but there’s only 2 included in the planner… which is definitely not going to last an entire year. I’d love an entire tear off notepad with this design!

Notes Pages

Decent line spacing so writing won’t end up super crammed the page. This page divided into 2 will be perfect for list making

Pen Testing

The paper feels quite thin so I was surprised when there was hardly any pen bleed through – even the Stabilo Pen 68 (marker pen) which normally bleeds through or has really bad ghosting in other planners.

Price

Reasonably priced. I bought the planner halfway through the year for $10USD from Amazon. If you buy it for an entire year they seem to cost around $20 – quite cheap for a planner. Shipping wasn’t too expensive if you’re a fellow Aussie wanting to buy this planner (or any planner from Amazon).

Pros of the Day Designer for Blue Sky Planner

Landscape page orientation gives you wider columns to write in for each day

Reasonably priced

Lined monthly calendar

USA holidays pre-printed on the monthly and weekly spreads

Doesn’t feel like it weighs much

Frosted cover to protect the pattern cover. Not sure what the material is but it feels like thin super smooth cardstock

Tabs for each month and a big easy to find and grip essentials info tab at the back

Cons of the Day Designer for Blue Sky Planner

Not enough of the extras pages e.g. only 2 grocery lists is definitely not going to last the entire year – I really love the layout of the grocery list though so if the company made a tear off notepad I’d buy it

Too many contacts pages – medical contacts, household contacts and general contacts – bit of a waste of paper in my opinion since all of that is kept on my phone – would have liked to see more list pages similar to the 3 lists beside the monthly calendar

The calendar combines 2 days into the one box rather than re-starting the date at the top of the next line

Can only buy from Amazon. Blue Sky doesn’t ship to Australia (I really love the style of their planners and literally emailed them to make sure it wasn’t an error on their website ☹

12 hour schedule from 7am to 7pm – for a night owl like me I’ll be using whiteout for the times

Saturdays and Sunday fits the same space as a weekday i.e. you get half the amount of planning space

When you use the planner you’ll need to fold the pages back on themselves unless you have a large desk (i.e. you won’t be able to see the entire week at one glance)

The coil snugly fits the planner so if you like to decorate using planner stickers & washi you might need to tear out weeks as you use them for everything to fit

In my usual fashion, I had no self-control when I placed my Amazon order so I have tons more planners coming (including another Blue Sky collab so make sure you subscribe to be notified when new posts are published)

Who this planner is ideal for

The planner has things like baby checklists, medical and household contacts implying it was designed for mums. However, I think this planner could be used by anyone.

Would I use this planner?

Yes! I’m really keen to try it for the 52 Planners in 52 Weeks Challenge. The width of the daily planning spaces on the weekend spread looks like a good mid-range between a vertical and a horizontal planner.

Welcome

Welcome to All About Planners! I’m Rachael, a 20-something Aussie addicted to graphic design and all things planning. On the blog you’ll find more than 200 planner reviews as well as planning tips and some of my past weekly spreads.

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